At the hands of Death
by retro and vintage
Summary: Peppermint Butler woke up from his uneasy dreams and found himself surrounded by headless, deformed bodies.


AN: I've been watching this show for a while now. So far, I only love the minor characters, especially** Peppermint butler**, The Lich, Death and **MAGIC MAN**. Here's an experiment in the making.

My version on he meets death.

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><p>Peppermint Butler woke up from his uneasy dreams and found himself surrounded by headless, deformed bodies.<p>

White eyes widened, tears wouldn't let themselves leak too far. His mouth..it began to stutter involuntarily, unsure if it wanted scream for help or break down and sob. But in disobedience to his body, he did nothing but stare at the lifeless people before him. The very ones he helped with their trivial problems, the ones he said hi and hello to every morning, the ones who he...They were dead.

Wherever he looked, layers and layers of candy cadavers lie upon each other. Some had their eyes their closed or open, most had their mouths contorted in short lived screams, their bodies twisted and appendages were amputated. He could see their sugary viscera rupturing their flesh.

This couldn't have happened, this is impossible. It's...

He closed his eyes again, and the uncontrollable chattering of his white teeth echoed throughout the land, he didn't like the sound coming from him. He bit his lip, his jaw quivering involuntarily.

This wasn't real, he told himself, but the weight of his friends on the land, the stench that emitted from their rotting forms that floated like fog were proofs of their deaths.

This wasn't real, he repeated to himself, somehow convinced that saying it over and over again will undo their deaths.

Say it again.

It's not real, It cannot be, It's too sad, sadness does not exist here...

He gulped the whirl of words further down his throat. He hated lying to himself. He couldn't see any signs of breathing, no sounds nor chokes made by the dying. How could he fool himself? It's right there in front of him.

He sees clearly, still disbelieving, eyes adjusting to dead mountain range of candy. He had to accept it. There are no clouds of disposition that always fade into black haze when he opens his eyes in the real world. He doesn't feel his body was lying on his soft, warm bed. He doesn't feel the familiar touch of his pillow underneath, no thick sheets to protect him in the cold moors of the dark nights.

His eyes, they were open. He sees them, knows every single one of them. He knew their names, what they've been through. He did his best in remembering everybody.

It must be sad to die like that.

He couldn't hold in his hesitation to believe it. He couldn't take it anymore.

He just couldn't.

This is real.

He said it out loud now. Real like his shaking hands, Real like the dizziness plaguing him. He shamefully disturbed the silence the kingdom had enveloped itself in. Disturbed the silence to respect the dead.

But he really wished this was all an illusion.

He blinked slowly, the dimming light from the dawn now had blackened. He looked around, resuming his ire again. Then a most inconvenient discovery dawned upon him. He could only gasp as signs of life rise from the ground. The vermin he didn't care about made their presence known as he heard the disturbing process of masticating of the candy flesh. Ants covered their sugary coverings, Tiny candy carnivorous insects plow through their sweet enamels and consume their entire beings and stain their succulent forms with hungry saliva. They did not mind him.

Peppermint butler was mortified to do anything. But he composed himself.

It's not worth it.

They are dead, it's not worth saving the bodies. They would rot, they would melt under the sun's changing heat, a magnet to vermin, a waste of space - they could not even fertilize the soil. It would be pointless to save a dead body.

A waste of time.

How uncaring, he thought.

His feet were glued to the soft ground, soaked with the sweet liquids shed from the cadavers. He was unable to move, and maybe he didn't want to. The shock of seeing all this, at the very moment he opened his eyes, it overwhelmed him severely.

He didn't know what to do.

Imagine the magnitude of his horror then, when he remembered the most important person he dedicated his life to wasn't here.

Princess Bubblegum.

His feet began uprooted themselves and he ran for her dear life.

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><p>AN: Not sure where this might go though. An experimental fic with him. and admittedly, a draft.<p> 


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